A Japanese town in Gujarat soon

Gandhinagar, July 25 (IANS) The Gujarat government has decided to develop a township for the Japanese expats to further promote flow of investment from Japan that has filled the state’s first country-specific industrial estate in less than two years.

“We have declared about 700 hectares (1,700 acre) as Japanese township in Khoraj village, five km from the existing Sanand Industrial Estate,” said D. Thara, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC).

The 120-hectare Japanese Industrial Park in Mandal, 90 km from Ahmedabad, has got saturated with 13 companies either under construction or already operating. The state saw a need for a larger industrial area and a place for Japanese to call home.

“Now that we are having a traction from Japanese companies, the Japanese will need a place to stay, to establish their culture. They will need a comfort zone,” Thara said and added the township will have all amenities like schools, hospitals and market.

The Japanese government is working with the Gujarat government to develop the Japanese Industrial Township, which will have residential, commercial and industrial areas. While the state is constructing major roads, Japan will design the township.

“Japan is planning to engage industrial park developers like Toyota Tsusho. We will give them land and they will develop and give it to Japanese companies. In a plug-and-play environment, the firms can start production and then purchase land,” she said.

Eight Japanese companies have already expressed their interest in setting up their units at the township in Khoraj. Apart from the lure of homes and the homely ambience, Khoraj is centrally located and just 25 km from Ahmedabad.

“A minimum of 15,000 to 20,000 direct jobs will be generated and you can expect five times of that in generation of indirect jobs in areas like services, transport, goods, banking and food. We are talking about one lakh jobs in this township,” she said.

The flow of Japanese companies to Gujarat, alone or in a joint venture with Indian companies, has instilled a new work culture, discipline and efficient use of resources, particularly land, apart from the sharing of advanced technologies.

“The number of residences will depend on the number of industries and the number of workers and officers who will come from Japan. There is no question of constraint of land as the residential area will only grow in height (vertically) after this,” she said.

Thara will lead a delegation to Japan in October-end. The purpose of the visit will be to invite Japanese delegations for “Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit” to be held on January 18-20, 2019. Like earlier years, this time too Japan will be the country partner.